Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Yahoo! fired chief executive Carol Bartz, less than three years after
she was brought in to help turn around the struggling Internet company.

In a statement Yahoo announced Bartz had been "removed" from her
post and would be replaced by chief financial officer Timothy Morse
"effective immediately" on an interim basis as the firm began the search
for a new, permanent CEO.

In an e-mail sent to Yahoo employees from her iPad and titled "Goodbye," Bartz
wrote: "I am very sad to tell you that I've just been fired over the
phone by Yahoo's chairman of the board." She wrote, "It has been my
pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going
forward."

Bartz joined Yahoo in January 2009, replacing co-founder Jerry Yang who had returned to the helm of the company in an ill-fated bid to turn its fortunes around. Bartz had also fallen out of favour with Wall Street investors, unhappy
with her turnaround strategy and her handling of the firm's strained
relatonship with China's Alibaba Group, in which it holds a 40% stake.

Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock said in a Statement:

"On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Carol for
her service to Yahoo! during a critical time of transition in the
Company's history, and against a very challenging macro-economic
backdrop. I would also like to express the Board's appreciation to Tim
and thank him for accepting this important role. We have great
confidence in his abilities and in those of the other executives who
have been named to the Executive Leadership Council."

"The board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can
capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the company's
leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against
these opportunities," Bostock said.

Yahoo! shares were up 5.73 percent at $13.65 in after-hours electronic trading.

And, Yahoo employees are celebrating the fact that their chief executive, Carol Bartz, has been fired.
Former Yahoo vice president Brad Garlinghouse greeted the news with a tweet: “Ding dong the witch is dead.”

According to a survey by Glassdoor, Bartz’s approval rating among Yahoo employees has been declined over the past two and a half years. Refer the below chart.

Find below the some of the comments from yahoo employees in the Glassdoor Survery.

“Be straightforward with the real problems Yahoo is facing and focus
on the core business rather than spread the money over many irrelevant
projects that are destined to die from the day they start.” –Yahoo
employee

“Very low employee morale is taking a toll on those who still want to
work here, Upper management gives the same raa-raa speeches will little
to back up the talk.” – Yahoo employee

“Lack of numbers driven decision making, lack of customer focus. Top
leadership denies the world changed so we are still pursuing the portal
business when the world rapidly changes to mobile, apps, social networks
and location based personal solutions.” – Yahoo product manager

“Keep fighting the good fight; keep employees motivated, and reward
them for doing well! Do better at identifying top talent and nurturing,
stimulating, and retaining that talent.” – Yahoo technical employee

“please stop making senseless speeches about your vision and
strategic plans. Instead, focus more on quality engineering and
addressing the platform problems. Please don’t attempt to save a few
bucks by outsourcing.” – Yahoo technical employee

“go away already!” – Yahoo web analytics manager

Previously HP's woman CEO Carly Fiorina also faced the same situation. Now it happened to Yahoo's Carol Bartz. So, I am seeing many comments in many websites saying that women are NOT suitable for the higher management posts in big companies. Do you agree with these comments? You can share your thoughts thro' the comments section.

And, Yahoo VP of product development Bobby Figueroa is also leaving the company.

About Calol Barz

Bartz was born in Winona, Minnesota. Her mother, Shirley Bartz, died when Carol was eight years old. A few years later, she and her younger brother Jim moved from Minnesota to the home of their grandmother, Alice Schwartz, on a dairy farm near Alma, Wisconsin.

In high school, Bartz did well in mathematics, and was also homecoming queen. She began college at William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri, and subsequently transferred to the University of Wisconsin–Madison where she received a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1971. While in college, she supported herself as a cocktail waitress.

In 1976, Bartz went to work at the manufacturing conglomerate 3M, but left after her request to transfer to the headquarters was denied.

She became CEO of Autodesk in 1992. According to Forbes, Bartz "transformed Autodesk from an aimless maker of PC software into a leader of computer-aided design software, targeting architects and builders."

Bartz served on several boards of directors, including those of Intel,Cisco Systems, Autodesk, BEA Systems, Network Appliance, and the Foundation for the National Medals of Science. Additionally, she has been a member of the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Bartz is married to Bill Marr, a former executive at Data General and Sun Microsystems. They have three children: Bill, Meredith, and Layne. Her hobbies include golf, tennis, and gardening.

Bartz was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree (2002) from New Jersey Institute of Technology, an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from William Woods University

On balancing a career with family, Bartz says: "I have a belief that life isn't about balance, because balance is perfection ... Rather, it's about catching the ball before it hits the floor

When Carol was hired by Yahoo in early 2009 she was paid an annual base salary of $1 million. She was eligible for an annual 400% bonus and received 5,000,000 shares in addition to an equity grant of $18 million of stock.